Like these good people, I find it more likely that this die was used in a game with skewed probability. A game that had been designed so that it would be more likely to get ‘ok’ numbers than ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ numbers.

One reason for doubting their theory is that the fault with the die is far too easy to detect.

Making a loaded dice, that would land on a specific side, seems like a safer bet to me.

And the die does follow the same tradition as normal dice, of having all the opposite sides adding up to the same number.

Dice can be used in a lot of very creative ways.

In ‘Dungeons & Dragons’, and other table-top roleplaying games, dice are often used to test the abilities of the player characters, with some randomness added.

An action the player attempted to make may have a difficulty of 15 out of 20, and the player would then have to match or go above that number on a 20-sided die.

If the character was skilled in said action, they could get bonus modifiers to the outcome on the die.

And that is just one example.

There are countless ways dice have been used, beyond the straight forward “normal” way.

If the find does turn out to be an unknown game, rather than an attempt to cheat at dice, this is an even bigger discovery than first assumed!

Imagine if we were able to somewhat recreate a game from 1276 with this die and our knowledge of Bergen from this time.

In fact, I would love to see what you could come up with!

Be it a concept, idea or a full print&play experience, please leave it in the comments.

Were dice only used in games? Are there other possibilities? The English phrase ‘dicing with death’ springs to my mind. Perhaps some important decisions need to be made, where the probability was deliberately skewed. I say this in complete ignorance, just curiosity…

This appeals to me on many levels. I prefer not to speculate about the possibilities of use but, rather, just to marvel at it’s preservation and our connectedness throughout the ages. Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting.